I have absolutely no painting experience myself (other than kids rooms) but we just had our second coat of Aura matte (Shelbourne Buff)put on today. I was a little nervous because one of the workers with our contractor was doing the painting. I did not hire a "professional" painter even though they assured me he has painted many jobs for them and is very good. He didn't seem familiar with the Aura paint and I told him about the fast drying, etc. Well, I think it looks so great. After your email I went in to check closely where they cut in by the ceiling and I can't see any difference in finishes. I also think the 2 coats were enough. I would think as long as he uses a good primer that 2 coats of a white would be fine. Seems to me with the addition of the retardant, you are defeating the purpose of paying more for the Aura paint and losing the benefit of low VOC's.

Just wanted to share my experience. Let's see what others have to say.

We had 6 rooms painted in Aura and the paint is great. Lots of depth to the colors and good coverage. The painters even remarked about how well it covered.

It does dry faster, but it didn't seem to be a problem for them. They only complained about the cost of the paint.

We used Aura eggshell and unfortunately I notice where it was applied with brush vs. roller. Perhaps this doesn't happen with matte finish?

if your painter doesn't like the way it goes on you either have to get rid of the paint ...or the guy putting it on. good luck, and i hope all works out. please post pics!

We've done our whole house ourselves, in Aura Matte mostly, and love this paint. (My guy is a former finish painter.) I've found the coverage to be superior to anything else I've used -- really unsure why your painter thinks it has inferior coverage. We covered dark purple (shiny 80's purple!) with two coats of light gray Aura and no primer, no problem.

It's thicker and you can use Floetrol or another extender (I think they market a special Aura extender) but the point really is the thickness, for the coverage & depth of color. Could be your guy thins it way down with extender and thus loses all the Aura benefits?

Re. cutting in with a brush and rolling: you do have to watch out that your cut-ins are dry before going back over with the rolled layer. It will lift up if it isn't dry yet (give it an hour). We don't have any kind of demarcations where brush/roller tracks meet.

You can post this question on the Paint forum, where lots of pro painters hang out, to see if they know what he means and offer any tips. But ultimately, it's really up to the comfort level and skill of the painter you have. If he says he hates using Aura, then there might not be any point in insisting on it, no matter who else in the world loves it. But if you've decided you want the benefits and the look, I'd go for it, make sure he doesn't thin it down, and damn the torpedos.

We painted our bathroom ourselves using Aura matte (regular Aura matte--we missed the kind made specifically for bathrooms by about a month or two). We primed the walls with BIN primer (?), then cut-in and rolled two coats of Aura matte on the ceiling and on the walls. It is not difficult to do, and we used no extenders either. Our bathroom is small, and as soon as we finished cutting in, those parts were dry enough for us to start rolling. There are no demarcation lines at all.

The only special care, is watch for drips, as they tend to "set-up" faster than they would using other paints.

Also, if/when you need to do touch-ups, use the same texture/nap roller as you used to do the original paint job--the difference in texture on the wall is what you'll notice in the touched-up spots, not the paint itself.

It is not difficult to use, it touches-up well, and scrubs clean beautifully, without any loss of paint on the wall (you really can't tell where I've scrubbed).

I love the look of the Aura paint. The only downside is my kids can not get posters to stay up in their rooms! We've tried tape, special "poster" tape, and thumb tacks (the walls are REALLY hard, so those don't go in very far). Still, posters come down in the night every few weeks.

Scotch makes these grey foam sticky-things for hanging stuff (comes in a box of 'tabs' or in a roll, I think). You can take stuff down, but you will need to "roll" the sticky stuff that's sometimes left behind (by rubbing your thumb over it to roll it up/off the wall). Seems to hold up better than some of the other stuff out there....

Here is a link that might be useful: Scotch Wall Mounting Tabs

Keep the paint, get rid of the painter. I am a modest DIYer and did not have any trouble painting with aura paint. it is the nicest paint i have ever used.

It was our local BM store that tried to talk us out of using Aura! I think they weren't using it themselves and didnÂt quite know how to explain its properties to people. Our painter was game to try it, as he had never used it before and he loved it. Said it went on like a dream, very few coats, and while it did dry quickly, that wasn't problematic for him. After the fact, I have noticed a handful of "drip" marks, but considering the whole house was repainted there were very few and none in the kitchen :-). And we love the look of the Aura matte finish  it is rich and velvety.

Ultimately whoever is doing the painting needs to be comfortable with the product. If you like your painter and his work that's important and I wouldn't switch just for the sake of using Aura. Could you buy a small pint and have him try it out so that both of you would be satisfied that the end result would be good?

Eliz

elizpiz - Sadly, I'd kill for a "few" drip marks!!!!

Wow, thanks for all the advice!

Painter has calmed down today, and the aura has been bought. I didn't realize there were so many divergent opinions about it, or I would not have insisted so blithely on using it. I really like the look of matte paint and it seems that aura is the best washable option. circuspeanut, I didn't post on the paint forum, but I did read a whole bunch of posts that dealt with my issue. Sobering! Still, I feel hopeful, since my painter is fastidious. I'm trusting that he'll make it work.

I will only use Aura these days.

My BM store loves me. I sell it to someone every time I walk in there because I rave about it so much. They started giving me discounts. :)

It is the easiest paint to work with, IMO. The quick drying is great and combined with the fact that touch ups don't stick out, it's nearly perfect.

I went back and did a touch up two months after painting the bathroom and you can't tell where I did it.

We used aura in our kitchen (several other rooms too). Very important to have a good painter. Ours loves aura but did say that it does not work well on ceilings, so she used a different BM paint for the ceilings. We love aura and will continue to use it in the future. Hope this helps! A.

And best of all, Aura is low VOC and has very little odor, so it's safe for critters and small humans.